Posts Tagged foreign reporting

The world is becoming more transparent by the day. As more banks and governments exchange financial information, thousands of innocent folks are getting caught in government drag nets designed to identify those with unreported offshore accounts. “Innocent”? Yes, most of the folks we encounter are dual nationals, foreign born Americans, expats living overseas or hard [...]

The United States and Canada have long enjoyed very close ties. That relationship isn’t likely to change in the near future, although FATCA – the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – has angered many Canadians. Some equate FATCA with U.S. imperialism and say the law threatens Canada’s sovereignty. Congress passed FATCA in 2010. The law [...]

A Florida man was convicted of having unreported bank accounts in Israel and Switzerland. Prosecutors claimed that Bernard Kramer of Delray Beach, Florida had hidden offshore accounts since 1987. Owning an offshore account is completely legal. Most foreign accounts, however, must be reported annually. If the total value of offshore accounts exceeds $10,000, those accounts [...]

Ordinarily our blog dispenses general advice on how to comply with complex tax laws and avoid becoming the victim of fraud. Unfortunately, we are not living in ordinary times. Today’s story is one which largely escaped the mainstream media. It’s message, however, should be carefully studied by everyone who still has a few dollars left [...]

A federal jury in South Bend, Indiana convicted James Simon of filing false tax returns and of failing to file FBARs. As regular readers of this blog know, the willful failure to file an FBAR is a felony. Following his conviction, Simon appealed. In a lengthy opinion, the US. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld [...]

U.S. taxpayers are required to report offshore financial holdings. This includes bank accounts, certificates of deposit, offshore brokerage accounts and even some life insurance products. Reporting is done annually on a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, more commonly known as an FBAR form. (Depending on how those assets are held, there may be [...]

Recently I met a gentlemen while traveling on a plane. After the usual pleasantries, he discovered that I was a lawyer that helped taxpayers with FBAR and unreported offshore account issues. The gentleman proudly announced that his account located in a tiny Caribbean island nation was “safe” from disclosure and that a “friend” high in [...]

Just hours after we posted a story about Swiss bankers and US officials completing a deal to allow Swiss banks to avoid prosecution by turning over information about US taxpayers with unreported Swiss accounts comes news from Rahn & Bodmer, a Swiss private bank, that they are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. [...]

We have been warning people for 2 years that the day of reckoning was coming. Sure, there were some false starts and last minute political moves, but the waiting is over. Switzerland and the United States have reached an agreement that will result in the names of tens of thousands of U.S. taxpayers holding Swiss [...]

There have been many false starts in the long battle between the IRS and proponents of Swiss banking secrecy. Even after both Swiss banks and the Swiss finance ministry caved to pressure from Washington, the Swiss parliament stepped in to prevent the banks from making wholesale disclosures to the IRS. Now a deal between the [...]